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拍品专文
DR. SUSAN TEBBY ON CHANCE, ORDER, CHANGE 26 (HISTORY PAINTING)
Seeing this superb late painting being completed by Kenneth over a period of about 6 months was revelatory. The thick black and white paint was slowly built up by small brush strokes: edifices of black against white bands in the spaces between gradually produced a dynamic universe of lines and layers that pulled one in to their world. When asked about the thick paint application Kenneth would say, ‘I'm putting on the white, making the white whiter’ by which he meant that the myriad edges and valleys of the fine white strokes would reflect and deflect more light from different angles. This gave the white paint a wonderful luminosity.
‘History Painting’ refers to the fact that the order of construction of the elements, their placement and their dynamics are ‘recoverable’ through time: the processes of the making of the painting can be discerned by careful investigation, guided by the title of the work and comparing this painting with others. Discovering where lines or bands cross the canvas in layers reveals that where they meet another band they bend – change direction - to the right, following a path to the next marker clockwise at the perimeter. At the same time the ‘band’ collects another parallel band on its right. If that double band meets another band (or even a double or triple band) it again faces the next marker clockwise on the perimeter, collecting yet another band. And so on: layer under layer, moving back in space, all the while ‘curving’ to the right eventually increasing the maximum possible number of parallel bands to eleven.
The measured physicality and slow, contemplative build-up of black lines with white spaces between take on a tangible presence rarely encountered in modern geometric painting. The first Chance and Order painting was completed in 1970, following a series of drawings begun the previous year. The series culminates in Chance, Order, Change 26 (History Painting), 1983, which was chosen for the cover of his Serpentine Gallery exhibition in 1985.
Seeing this superb late painting being completed by Kenneth over a period of about 6 months was revelatory. The thick black and white paint was slowly built up by small brush strokes: edifices of black against white bands in the spaces between gradually produced a dynamic universe of lines and layers that pulled one in to their world. When asked about the thick paint application Kenneth would say, ‘I'm putting on the white, making the white whiter’ by which he meant that the myriad edges and valleys of the fine white strokes would reflect and deflect more light from different angles. This gave the white paint a wonderful luminosity.
‘History Painting’ refers to the fact that the order of construction of the elements, their placement and their dynamics are ‘recoverable’ through time: the processes of the making of the painting can be discerned by careful investigation, guided by the title of the work and comparing this painting with others. Discovering where lines or bands cross the canvas in layers reveals that where they meet another band they bend – change direction - to the right, following a path to the next marker clockwise at the perimeter. At the same time the ‘band’ collects another parallel band on its right. If that double band meets another band (or even a double or triple band) it again faces the next marker clockwise on the perimeter, collecting yet another band. And so on: layer under layer, moving back in space, all the while ‘curving’ to the right eventually increasing the maximum possible number of parallel bands to eleven.
The measured physicality and slow, contemplative build-up of black lines with white spaces between take on a tangible presence rarely encountered in modern geometric painting. The first Chance and Order painting was completed in 1970, following a series of drawings begun the previous year. The series culminates in Chance, Order, Change 26 (History Painting), 1983, which was chosen for the cover of his Serpentine Gallery exhibition in 1985.